Online businesses begin in Sindh from today under new SOPs
KARACHI (92 News) – The online businesses has been begun in the Sindh under new standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Home Department last week.
According to the details garnered, shopkeepers and traders have filled in forms to be submitted to the authorities today for the resumption of businesses. The government has given conditional permission to start online businesses from Monday to Thursday between 09am to 03pm as the lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus continues to remain in effect.
According to SOPs, the shopkeeper cannot open his shop in the market. The shutter will be lifted after taking online order and the order will be sent through delivery boy.
Businesses are allowed to operate from 9am to 3pm with their shutters down. No customer is allowed to enter the shop premises.
Before they start online operations, they are required to give detailed briefings on the COVID-19 spread, preventive steps to be taken against the spread, and the signs and symptoms of the disease to look out for.
It is the owner's responsibility to ensure all employees follow the set safety protocols, said the notice, adding that the provision of protective gear must also be ensured by the owner.
Delivery persons are required to display an identity card from their workplaces, along with their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC), and a log of each delivery is also to be maintained.
— GOS-COVID19 (@19sindh) April 25, 2020Earlier on Saturday, all Karachi Tajir Ittehad has categorically rejected online business standard operating procedures (SOPs) given by Sindh government. The traders and businessmen community has claimed that the new orders will only favour five per cent of the community and the rest will continue to bear losses. The Karachi Tajir Ittehad also said that the the online business SOPs is a technical refusal by the government of Sindh to our demands of opening businesses. On the occasion, Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atiq Mir said that the traders who indulged in dialogue with the government have been befooled. He also said that the traders will have to fill and submit almost 600,000 applications to fulfill the new SOPs for online businesses which is a mammoth task on its own. The chairman further mentioned that the lockdown restrictions are merely in papers as millions of people are out on the streets of Karachi whilst businesses continue to suffer.
